By examining the article called “Here’s How Many People Have Fatally Overdosed On Marijuana,” “A total of 17,465 people died from overdosing on illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine in 2014, while 25,760 people died from overdosing on prescription drugs, including painkillers and tranquilizers.”(The Huffington Post). Based on the evidence, it is clear that drugs are bad for people and it can hurt them in different types of ways.

Drugs are bad for people because individuals can overdose or it could affect their health. For example, in an online article called “Overdose is gross: What happens to your body when you O.D.” by Destinations to Recovery, they stated, “If a drug overdose does not lead to death, it can lead to serious, long-term consequences. Some people who overdose on drugs and survive have to live with permanent brain damage.”(Destinations to Recovery). The words in this quote show how dangerous drug overdose can be to the body. Examples of long-term consequences are impacting people’s brain, that may cause memory loss and it will also cause users not to move as easily as they used to.It will be hard for you to write and read. Also, when people overdose that can cause a lack of oxygen and they can lose consciousness. Some types of drugs that can damage your body if you overdose Heroin, Cocaine, Crack, Hallucinogens, Amphetamines. Therefore, it is clear that drugs can damage you physically and mentally. This is some ways that drugs can affect you and hurt you.

Another way drugs can hurt people, especially women, is when women get pregnant and use drugs that can cause birth defects. For example, in an article called “Effects of drugs abuse and addiction,” they said that “Nearly 4 percent of pregnant women in the United States use illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and other amphetamines, and heroin. These and other illicit drugs may pose various risks for pregnant women and their babies. Some of these drugs can cause a baby to be born too small or too soon, or to have withdrawal symptoms, birth defects or learning and behavioral problems. Additionally, illicit drugs may be prepared with impurities that may be harmful to a pregnancy (Gateway foundation).This shows that women that are about to give birth can affect the baby because of the drug use they can die or they can come out deformed “not normal”. This also shows that 4 percent of women that take drugs can also affect the baby because of the drugs they take.

Some people may think that some drugs are used for medical purposes and are positive. In an article called “What is marijuana?”It explains “Scientific study of the chemicals in marijuana, called cannabinoids, has led to two FDA-approved medications that contain cannabinoid chemicals in pill form. Continued research may lead to more medications.Because the marijuana plant contains chemicals that may help treat a range of illnesses or symptoms, many people argue that it should be legal for medical purposes. In fact, a growing number of states have legalized marijuana for medical use” (National Institute On Drug Abuse). This shows that marijuana is medicine and it can help treat illness and that it is FDA approved and that marijuana is legalized for medical use. But it is not healthy because it still will affect your body and people’s brain and immune system.

In conclusion, drugs damage people’s body even though it can help and work as medicine but it can affect women while pregnant. It can also affect people in their brains and immune system and other kinds of ways that drugs can affect you.

Dear Hector,
You mentioned how . “…[drugs] can also affect people in their brains and immune system and other kinds of ways that drugs can affect you.” and I agree with what you said about how drugs have different consequences for different people. The statistics in your post shocked me such as how 4% of pregnant women engage in drug use. I think that the misuse of drugs not only has negative effects on your body but also on your mental health and self worth. Obviously, as you mentioned, drugs are very important and beneficial substances when used for medical purposes but in fact many prescriptions are unnecessary. I’ve linked an article that I think explains it well below.Let me know what you think about it. I’d be happy to hear back from you.

As I was reading through what you’ve wrote I couldn’t help but think that every statement had sources of research to back it up. I enjoyed reading through this as I learned a few things myself. The one line that stood out to me the most was when you quoted “If a drug overdose does not lead to death, it can lead to serious, long-term consequences. Some people who overdose on drugs and survive have to live with permanent brain damage.”(Destinations to Recovery) Well it seems that many people now a days don’t really grasp the idea that drugs hurts more than what you can see. Do you think that people would learn from their mistakes when overdosing? Lastly, I got a little confused in the start because you opened up by talking about overdosing on Marijuana where then right after spoke about Heroin and Cocaine overdoses. Was Marijuana included? I would’ve loved to maybe get more of your own opinions about the issues as well maybe what you thought about what the research said. Overall I enjoyed what’ve wrote!

I think they will learn from their mistakes it depend if they care about their body and after they over they would know what the affect will be on there body .A piece of evidence that i have is my cousin used to take heroin and overdosed and then he quit using heroin and that helped them a lot he knew what the consequences where.

I am shocked about all of the facts that yous stated because your hook grabbed my attention. One sentence that you wrote out that stood out to me was you stated how 4% of women use drugs and the negative effect of them using the drug is their baby coming out with health issues. Another sentence that stood out to me was when you stated how 17,465 people died from overdosing on illicit drugs like heroin and cocaine in 2014. That is a very interesting fact to me! I definitely agree with you when you said how drugs can affect you and your body.

Something that you could do better is to explain and dig deeper about how and why the drugs affect you!

Thanks for writing this really interesting and shocking blog post. I look forward to seeing what you write next, because your writing is very interesting.

Dear Hector,
I find your topic very intriguing, I appreciate you for choosing this topic. I believe you are in the 9th grade and ima say this is the age many kids began to try something new. You are taking a powerful stand to educate those around you! It’s better to know the consequences first, and know of the possibilities that can occur. One thing i’d like you to add to help further your reasoning is to explain how it can physically affect your body negatively, or positively as well. Dig a little deeper to the reasoning of “why.”

Dear Hector, I totally agree that drugs affect the body. Your examples are totally true, people can overdose from drugs which is body for your body and will affect them in the future. Drugs are also bad for the body, if a woman is pregnant and she takes drugs, which can potentially affect the baby with defects. Even though people say drugs are sometimes used as medications they still affect the body as you say. I like your post Hector, you are totally right and I hope you keep posting post like this.

Dear Hector,
I agree that using illicit drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana recreationally is really bad and can have permanent issues given to the user you don’t really seem to talk about the benefits of some of these drugs. For example, medical marijuana is used by people with AIDS to reduce their nausea and neuropathy. Medical marijuana is also used by cancer patients to inhibit tumor growth and reduce nausea. Marijuana can also help with Epilepsy, Dystonia, Alzheimer’s, Fibromyalgia, Gliomas, ALS, chronic pain, MRSA, and Osteoporosis. Yes drugs can cause many terrible things to happen to a human such as birth defects in one’s child, permanent brain damage, and possibly even death but, I want people to see that drugs aren’t just bad and that sometimes they can do so much good.

Dear Hector,
I agree that taking any kind of drugs can affect you. It can kill you and you could get really hurt for being on drugs. But some things I disagreed on because some drugs help people. Some people need drugs to take care of their bodies. But some people might not be using the drugs correctly and they would end up dieing. I also liked alot of the information because it gives information on how you should take care of your body and to be safe. You should put more reasons of what would happen if you take drugs. For me nobody in my family takes drugs so I feel a little better and I feel bad for the families that take bad drugs. But this was a great Explanation.

I am feeling emotional and surprised with your post, “Does drug affect your body,” because I didn’t know that 17,465 people died from overdosing on illicit drugs. I knew that a lot of people died but I wasn’t sure how many. It makes me feel emotional because it’s hurtful knowing that many people can die from overdosing instead they could of been in a nice place and getting an education or working.
One sentence you wrote that stands out for me is: “If a drug overdose does not lead to death, it can lead to serious, long-term consequences. Some people who overdose on drugs and survive have to live with permanent brain damage.” I think this is good because is informing what can happen if someone survives from overdosing. As well is sends out the message to people to thing about doing drugs because of death or damages on their body.

I enjoyed reading your research, I’m sure that this research can help people inform themselves more about drugs and the way their lives can change really easy.

As a 12th grader I suggest you to keep up your work, pass all your classes and don’t do drugs.

I am impressed about your article, “Do Drugs Affect Your Body” because all of what you typed is very interesting. I liked the picture you chose for your paper, it’s really good. Besides that, I respectfully disagree about a couple of things you said. One sentence that you typed that I respectfully disagree about is, “Drugs can negatively affect your body”(Hernandez). I respectfully disagree with that sentence because drugs can also be used to positively affect your body, one of these reasons being for medical use. Overall, you did good. Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because your writings are very detailed. Also, you have very good pictures to go with your essay.

I’m surprised with your post “Does drugs affect your body” I agree with everything your saying that drugs affect the human body. The reason why I think this is true because people may use their prescription in another way and use drugs and take advantage of it. A sentence that really stood out to me was ” These and other illicit drugs may pose various risks for pregnant women”. This sentence stood out to me because drugs is no help they damage everything they harm you like you said that their is a lot of possibilities that the pregnant lady or baby get hurt. I believe that drugs aren’t the way out of problems. Thank you for your writing! I look forward to see what you are writing next because your work is amazing.

Dear Hector,
I don’t agree with you you that drugs affect our body negatively. One reason I say that is because it is used as a medicine.Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next.

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We merged several earlier blogging projects. We have found that there are many advantages to bringing students together in one site that lives beyond any particular class. It's easier for individual students to read and write about their own passions, to connect with other students, comment on each other's work, and create multimedia posts for each other. Further, it's been exciting for us to pool our knowledge about curriculum, connected learning, and digital literacies.

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